Children in Gaza have been denied education with utter brutality

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General

19 October 2025 - From Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General as posted on his official X account (previously known as Twitter)

Among the range of deprivation and trauma, children in Gaza have been denied education with utter brutality.

Resuming education will bring hope, healing, and continuity amid destruction.

To bring children across the Gaza Strip back on the path to learning is our priority.  Failing to do so will only sow the seeds for more despair and extremism.

Before the ceasefire more than 60,000 children have benefitted from UNRWA 's Temporary Learning Spaces, set up in community shelters for displaced people. They have offered basic learning and play activities, giving children some respite from the war.

With the ceasefire in place, we are expanding the number of such spaces, to enable non-formal education in newly accessible areas.

With winter approaching, we need urgently to bring in thousands of tents and tarpaulins to shelter children from the cold weather.

In parallel, nearly 300,000 children will access basic literacy, numeracy lessons remotely, supported by UNRWA teachers.

Throughout the war, our team members have fulfilled our promise: UNRWA works.

But we need much more to bring back education in the Gaza Strip.

Almost all school buildings have been destroyed or seriously damaged.

Rebuilding and repairing them will take time and resources.

There is no time to lose. Education cannot wait.